Midnight the Miracle Cat Has Sunny Future

Update: Midnight has been adopted! Her gloomy past behind her, this free-spirited gal has now been renamed Indie. Her new family reports that she is relishing the safe, comfortable indoor life and that she acts like she has known her canine sister, River, who is also a PETA rescue, for years. Indie has discovered catnip, and she is so photogenic that her new family has started an all-Indie scrapbook. If you are interested in adopting a PETA rescue, e-mail us at Adopt@peta.org.

Originally posted September 20:

Midnight the cat had been trapped in a tree for 10 terrifying days. Her owners couldn’t be bothered to lift a finger to help her. She had likely been frightened up the tree and didn’t know how to get back down, which should have been apparent after the first few hours. A concerned construction worker reported the stranded, distressed cat to PETA.

Seeing as the people responsible for her seemed not to care one bit, one of our Community Animal Project fieldworkers climbed about 35 feet up the tree, secured Midnight in her arms, and made the slow, careful descent. After 10 days without food or water, Midnight was lucky to be alive and was shaken and severely dehydrated, but once on the ground, the grateful cat began to purr. Her owners never allowed Midnight inside and had no plans to do so now, even after her brush with death, but they agreed to allow the fieldworker to find her a new home where she would be safe indoors.

Now Midnight is settling in at PETA’s Norfolk, Virginia, headquarters and is waiting patiently for the right adoptive family. She will be microchipped and spayed before adoption. If you are ready to make a lifetime commitment and give Midnight the safe, loving home that every cat deserves, please e-mail Adopt@peta.org.

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My husband, on his racing bicycle, doing @ 30mph, was thrown a considerable distance, landing hard, when clipped by a hit & run driver doing @ 45-50mph. My 10yr old, white flame-point male manx began sleeping with him, positioning himself on my husband’s right shoulder. Flash forward 3 months, my husband was in surgery, getting a total right shoulder replacement due to an impaction fracture sustained in the hit & run that had gone undiagnosed & had become gangrenous. Only Frankie, my cat, had realized my husband’s shoulder had been destroyed & for those 3 months had lovingly tried to help him heal by placing the warmth of his body directly over the injury. Those in this forum who have made callous statements about cats are entitled to their opinions but, quite frankly, I find their ignorance appalling.

Denise: How do you know cats don’t feel fear? How much time have you spent living life as a cat? I have had 13 cats during my life and know for a fact that cats not only feel the same emotions we do but respond to them as well. I’ve seen cats and dogs try to comfort an owner who was so angry and sad she was crying. I have seen cats shaking with fear of attack from other predators. I have seen one cat try to revive a recently killed cat friend. Dogs who will not leave their dead/killed owners. Dogs who’ve gone ape-shit with joy at the return of an owner who’s been away for a long time. Cats who act like watchdogs and cry to awaken owners in a burning building. It’s quite apparent to me you open your mouth and say the first thoughtless thing that pops out. You have no experience, no knowledge and no compassion for or about animals and should be relegated to an island somewhere all by yourself. Oops, no, make that ‘somewhere with all the other idjits in the world’.

Call me Crazy Denise because I would go back into my house if it was burning to save my babies lives. Even if I couldn’t I would at least try. Yes they are “CATS” as some people state, but to me they are my family. Compassion should never be limited to want to help any animal. P.S. If you get stuck in a hole and can’t get out, hey don’t expect to be rescued after all we wouldn’t want to enable helplessness..

Do us all a favor Denise and make sure you stay in your little remote village far removed from the rest of the human race. Anyone as devoid of empathy and so embittered as to believe that cats (especially kittens) do not feel fear is beyond reproach. You say they are not human and yet you want to domesticate them. Do you not see the contradiction in your own statement? I have four rescue cats as well as two rescue dogs and they all fear fear and happiness and anger and confusion… just like humans. Are they the exact same as us? No, because unlike humans they don’t have the ability to reason, which means sometimes they need a little compassion and help from us to survive. It’s sad that other people would need to point that out to you. I feel fear to.. fear for your animals. They deserve much, much better.

To Denise: You should never, ever, under any circumstances, adopt an animal, nor have animals in your life in any capacity. You clearly have no compassion for them nor do you have even a basic understanding of their emotional life. If your kitten somehow manages to get down that tree by herself (because you will clearly not help her) I beg you to give her to a family that will give her the love care she deserves.

Ten “terrifying” days? Are you drinking your bathwater? Cats don’t feel fear, they are not human! Our little kitten went up the tree today, and we live in a remote village with absolutely no way to get her down, not even a saw to cut the tree down. She’s going to have to get herself down, if the crows don’t carry off first. We love our animals, but we do not approve of enabling helplessness as part of domesticating them.

I live in Concord NC but my mother is in Princeton WV this weekend and would be coming down 77s, I would love to have her, have alwayshad black cats just because of the superstitous stories behind them and abuse many of them take. Contact me if there’s any way of getting her. Autumne Warburton Weissman

Black kitties are so cute! I love how their beautiful eyes stand out! I hope she finds a loving home where she is treated as family! Can you imagine leaving a family member trapped in a tree for over a week?? I wonder why people like that even bother having pets. :-S

Almost all of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, and going to circuses and zoos. We never considered the impact of these actions on the animals involved. For whatever reason, you are now asking the question: Why should animals have rights? Read more.